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| Iceland’s CNG Scanias with ENGVA Chairman, Peter Boisen, who attended the commissioning of the buses. |
Iceland, Reykjavik
Iceland
has joined the ever-growing number of nations with compressed natural
gas (CNG) buses, making use of upgraded biogas (bio-methane) instead of
natural gas. Straeto, the bus company servicing the capital introduced
two new Scania CNG buses in February.
The buses are a welcome addition to the growing number of CNG
vehicles in this big island with only 300,000 inhabitants (of which
180,000 live in the Reykjavik capital area). There are 50 CNG
vehicles in Iceland, 46 bi-fuel vehicles (VW, Citroen, Volvo, and Ford)
and 4 dedicated heavy-duty natural gas vehicles (NGVs). The heavy
duty vehicles include two Mercedes Bens Econic; one used as a waste
truck and one used as a container truck (hauler) and the two recently
commissioned Scania buses.
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| The Mayor of Reykjavík, Mrs. Steinunn Valdís Óskarsdóttir fills up the first bus! |
The bio-methane (gas) used
comes from the Reykjavik capital area landfill site, operated by the
waste management company SORPA. The landfill gas contains on the
average 50-60% methane and is upgraded with a water scrubber.
Along with introducing the buses, SORPA introduced the new upgrading
plant, and ESSO in Iceland introduced a new booster pump station.
The new scrubber plant was designed by VGK Consulting and large parts
of the plant were built in Iceland. Water scrubbing was chosen
after thorough comparison of available technologies.
Further developments are foreseen.
Today the upgraded methane
is transported by containers to the dispenser site, approximately 40 km
roundtrip. However, a project is under way to place a pipe from
the upgrading plant to the dispenser which is only 5 km, which is
likely to happen next autumn. Two new waste trucks will also
commence operation in October this year and at least 10 new bi-fuel
cars will be imported this year.
–
Metan Ltd., a knowledge and marketing company (owned by SORPA, ESSO, OR
Energy Company and NSA-private investment fund) is responsible for
marketing methane in Iceland.
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